Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to microelectronic fabrication, and more particularly to methods of removing etch residues that can be formed during microelectronic fabrication.
Description of the Related Art
With the continuing trend towards miniaturization of integrated circuits (ICs), there is a need for transistors to have higher drive currents with increasingly smaller dimensions. Part of processing advancements to provide smaller dimensions in microelectronic devices includes advancements in etch processing. The spacer module can be considered most challenging, as all materials exposed to plasma etch remain on device. The spacer module refers to the formation of the gate sidewall spacer adjacent to the gate structure of a semiconductors devices, such as field effect transistors (FETs). Processing at the spacer module becomes even more challenging for novel device geometries, such as Fin FETs, trigate semiconductor devices, and nanowire semiconductor devices.